Hackathon Days

At Space Apps Sydney events, teams of technologists, scientists, designers, and entrepreneurs work together to develop answers to some of the most pressing challenges on earth and space using publicly available NASA data. 

We invite everyone to be a part of this scientific exploration, as we unleash NASA’s data to problem solvers across the globe. We want you to join us in discovering our home planet at the NASA International Space Apps Sydney!

From: October 1, 2022, (9:00 am)
Till: October 2, 2022, (11:00 pm)
Address: Virtual (Get more details about the vent from here)

Join our opening call:

  • Time: Oct 5, 2024, 09:00 AM Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time

  • Meeting Link: TBA

  • Our local communication tool: Join our Slack channel to find team members, get in touch with your mentors, and stay up to date with the event: (Link will be added soon)

    Make sure you find and join all the channels starting with "2024-*", like "2024-ask-mentors" to connect with your mentors.

Mentors

Taofiq Huq 

Taofiq Huq is the Founder and CEO of Spiral Blue, where he leads a dynamic team of software and space engineers and data scientists on a quest to make Earth observation more accessible. Initially founded in 2017, Spiral Blue has recently launched the first of its Space Edge Computers to orbit and is now awaiting the results of this in-orbit demonstration. Spiral Blue has won multiple government grants and contracts, including from the Australian Defence Innovation Hub and Australian Space Agency. Spiral Blue has also won several international awards, including the 2019 Gravity Challenge, and the 2021 Waratah Seed payload competition. Mr. Huq is also Advisor for Sperospace, a space robotics startup, and holds a bachelor's in Aerospace Engineering from the University of New South Wales.

James Buttenshaw

James Buttenshaw is the Chief Technology Officer at Spiral Blue, a Sydney-based start-up. James developed the first generation of Space Edge Computer, a technology capable of bringing the power of AI to space, and now leads a team developing the next generation hardware and software for the company. Originally an Aircraft Technician with BAE Systems (who later sponsored his Mechatronics Engineering degree), most of his work experience has been in Systems Engineering for defense projects and, more recently, rail projects. James has been critical in delivering a Defence Contract, an Australian Space Agency Grant, and an Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre grant in his work at Spiral Blue.

Dr. Henry Zhong

Dr. Henry Zhong has a Ph.D. in Computer Science. He is currently the director and Head of AI at Spiral Blue. His area of research is in Computer Vision, where he works on bringing lightweight Machine Learning models to edge platforms. He has experience in research, developing scientific software, and writing academic publications.

Paul Hilton

Paul Hilton is a Business Development Manager at Spiral Blue, a Sydney-based company who have developed the Space Edge Computer, a technology capable of bringing the power of AI to space. He is also a Captain in the Australian Army Reserves in the corps of Royal Australian Engineers where he has served for 12 years, including on domestic operations such as OP Bushfire Assist in January 2020. Previously he had an extensive career in insurance, including workers’ compensation, casualty, and multinational insurances. Paul has completed his Masters of Space Operations at the University of New South Wales.

Charlie Wilson

Charlie is a software engineer at Spiral Blue. He has designed and developed software interfaces to connect the edge computer to different host satellites, across both high- and low-level protocols. He has also architected Spiral Blue’s ground infrastructure for communicating with satellites and allowing customers to design, run and sell machine learning and AI solutions on the edge.